#75. Davos 2025: The Intelligent Age Begins - Part 2
A Comprehensive Deep Dive into the Strategies Defining Our Next Decade
This Part 2, here is Part 1.
Dear Reader,
Having explored the global economic landscape, technological innovations, and emerging risks in Part 1, we now turn our attention to a region that stands at the critical intersection of opportunity and transformation: Africa.
This section builds upon the insights from the first part, focusing on the continent's unique position in the global economic ecosystem. As we delve into the sessions and discussions from Davos 2025, we'll uncover how Africa is not just a participant, but a potential leader in the Intelligent Age.
Prepare to challenge your existing perspectives and discover the strategic potential that African economies, innovations, and leadership represent in our rapidly evolving global context.
📻 Check out the audio recording of (both parts of) this article. (Disclaimer: Slight transcript variations possible)
Africa at the Forefront: Trade, Sustainability, and the Future of the Continent
Table of Contents
Africa at the Forefront
Session 1: Africa's Economy: Young and Fast
Session 2: Defending Earth's Largest Lung
Strategic Implications for 2025 and Beyond
What This Means For You (Young Africans)
Conclusion
Africa at the Forefront: Trade, Sustainability, and the Future of the Continent
The World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos this year provided crucial insights on the potential and future of Africa. Three sessions —" Africa's Economy: Young and Fast," " Defending Earth's Largest Lung," and " Reinventing Digital Inclusion" (discussed earlier) — painted a picture of both the challenges facing the continent and its incredible potential for growth and innovation.
These discussions highlighted how Africa stands at a critical intersection of economic development, environmental stewardship, and technological transformation.
Session 1: Africa's Economy: Young and Fast
The discussion on Africa's economy at WEF Davos 2025 centred on harnessing the continent's youthful demographic dividend and accelerating economic integration.
The distinguished panel included Duma Boko (President of Botswana), Wamkele Mene (Secretary-General, African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)), Leila Fourie (CEO, Johannesburg Stock Exchange) and Sumaila Zubairu (CEO, Africa Finance Corporation).
The Botswana president shared his approach of appointing young ministers (as young as 26) and building the nation's economy on two pillars: green economy and digital economy. This aligns with the broader continental strategy evident in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) developments.
The panel provided several key insights:
Democratic Governance as Foundation: President Masisi emphasized the importance of stable democratic processes as a foundation for economic growth, highlighting Botswana's commitment to peaceful transitions of power. The need to engage young people in the democratic process to build their confidence in the system was stressed.
AfCFTA's Transformative Potential: Wamkele Mene highlighted the progress made in implementing the AfCFTA, particularly in areas like digital trade and protocols for women and youth. A central theme was AfCFTA's role in addressing fragmentation and creating a single market for goods, services, and capital for Africa’s 1.4bn population.
Addressing the Finance Gap: Leila Fourie highlighted the financial access challenges facing African youth and SMEs. Despite African default rates (3.5-4%) and recovery rates (70-75%) being comparable to other regions, lending rates average 25% in Africa versus just 9% in South Asia. She proposed the Africa Exchange Linkage Project as a solution to increase liquidity and enable cross-border trading.
Digital Economy as Catalyst: The digital economy was highlighted as a major catalyst for future growth, empowering young Africans who are already digital natives. According to the panel, by 2050 Africa would require 800 data centres to drive Africa's digital economy.
Structural Economic Transformation: Sumaila Zubairu emphasized the need for structural economic transformation, moving away from exporting raw materials and focusing on value addition. The importance of building robust financial systems, including well-capitalized banks and pension funds, was highlighted.
On Economic Transformation: Sumaila Zubairu explained further how capital can be mobilised through economic transformation: Higher quality jobs produce taxes (that can be used to build schools), savings (that can be used for loans by the banking system), and pensions (that can be used by pension managers for infrastructure investments and providing Venture Capital). He recommends, harnessing this chain.
Session 2: Defending Earth’s Largest Lung
The second session focused on the critical importance of the Congo Basin —the world's largest tropical forest carbon sink—which sequesters 1.5 billion tons of CO2 annually and provides livelihoods for over 139 million people. With nearly two-thirds of this forest located in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the session highlighted an ambitious new initiative: the Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor.
This corridor initiative aims to:
Protect over 100,000 square kilometres of intact tropical forest (approximately the size of Iceland)
Create 500,000 new jobs
Transfer a million tons of food annually to Kinshasa
Reintegrate young people previously involved with armed groups
Deploy renewable energy, including hydrogen-powered boats
In 2023, I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for the Congo Rainforest, so this announcement was very exciting for me.
The European Union has committed an additional €90 million in grant funding to support sustainable agriculture, renewable energy use, and biodiversity protection in the corridor. Other supporters include the Grameen Bank, the Schmidt Foundation, and the Forum's 1t.org initiative.
Former US Special Presidential Envoy John Kerry, speaking as a private citizen, called it "one of the most exciting proposals at Davos for years" and emphasized its importance in addressing illegal logging and meeting net zero goals by 2050.
Strategic Implications for 2025 and Beyond
For African Governments:
Urgent Need: Reform financial regulations to mobilize domestic capital through pension funds and sovereign wealth
Democratic Imperative: Meaningful youth inclusion in political and economic decision-making
Regional Integration: Accelerate implementation of AfCFTA to address market fragmentation
For Investors and Businesses:
Opportunity: Africa's digital economy represents a massive growth market requiring significant infrastructure (800 data centres by 2050)
Challenge: Investment flows remain constrained by risk perception mismatches and policy uncertainty
Solution Path: New financial instruments, particularly green bonds and carbon markets, are showing higher uptake and better returns
For Global Partners:
Climate Action: The Congo Basin represents a critical carbon sink requiring protection for global climate goals.
Development Model: Initiatives like the Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor demonstrate how environmental protection, economic development, and peace-building can be integrated
Investment Opportunity: "Equitable partnerships" and "true strategic sustainable alliances" rather than traditional aid models
What This Means For You (Young Africans)
Economic Sectors: Green and digital economies represent primary growth opportunities
Skills Focus: Develop digital skills and explore entrepreneurial opportunities within the AfCFTA
Financial Access: New protocols and financial structures aim to reduce financing barriers
Participate in the democratic process
The WEF Davos 2025 discussions on Africa reveal a continent pursuing integrated solutions to complex challenges—linking youth empowerment with economic transformation, financial innovation with structural reforms, and environmental protection with peace-building.
The success of these ambitious initiatives depends on both internal reforms and external partnerships built on equity and sustainability rather than extraction.
Conclusion: A Future of Collaborative Intelligence
As we reflect on the discussions at Davos 2025, one thing becomes abundantly clear: we stand at the threshold of an era defined not just by artificial intelligence, but by collaborative intelligence. The confluence of technological innovation, demographic shifts, and geopolitical realignments presents unprecedented opportunities for those willing to embrace change with vision and responsibility.
The "Collaboration for the Intelligent Age" theme resonated across all sessions – from AI implementation strategies to reskilling initiatives, from trade reforms to Africa's emerging potential. What emerged was not a narrative of fear, but one of possibility. AI's $20 trillion potential economic impact, Africa's demographic dividend, green corridors preserving our planet's lungs, and reimagined workforce development all point to a future where human ingenuity, augmented by technology, can solve our most pressing challenges.
As we navigate this pivotal moment, one message stands clear: the intelligent age will be shaped by those who understand that true innovation emerges at the intersection of technology and humanity, of competition and cooperation, of local solutions and global vision. The future belongs not to those who fear change, but to those who harness it with wisdom, empathy, and bold collaborative action.
The question is not whether we will enter this new era, but how we will shape it together.
Goodluck.
If you enjoyed this article you should read my last article on Quincy Jones, I guarantee you would enjoy it. I have written other tech articles, business lessons, book reviews, and career articles .
Subscribe now at nerookwa.substack.com to stay updated.
Would you like to read more career focused articles or something else? Is there a topic you currently struggle with? Let me know. You can message me at notesbynero@gmail.com.
Thanks for reading and bye for now.
Nero
The Best is Yet to Come
